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It’s now official.
On May 3, several beat writers reported that, according to a “source,” the Jets aren’t picking up Darron Lee’s fifth-year option.
This is coming from the team. The Jets waited as long as possible until the fifth-year option deadline to make it official.
But to me, Manish Mehta made this announcement on May 1 when he tweeted, “Jets won’t be picking up Darron Lee’s 5th-year option ($10M in 2020).”
Clearly the other beat writers didn’t want to write a story based on Mehta’s report, so they just waited for the official deadline, and got the team to tell them. They all knew the deadline was coming, so why not just wait a couple of days to write it?
You don’t need to be in that press room to realize that relations between Mehta and some of other reporters isn’t copacetic. I’m not telling you any inside stuff. All you have to do is follow the writers on twitter to see some of the infighting.
But you know what, even though I don’t always love his modus operandi, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to give him credit when he actually breaks something.
Mehta had this two days before anyone else. He often has these kind of transactions before other reporters. I’m not criticizing other reporters, just dealing with the reality of the situation.
In my opinion, he plays the agent game better than other reporters. It is what it is.
But as far as the Lee decision, it makes sense. In fact, it might be time to move on, even if they can’t get a draft pick. On April 8, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport announced, “One player whose name has been mentioned in trade talks is Jets former first-round pick LB Darron Lee, thanks to the big-money addition of CJ Mosley. Lee will be there for the team’s voluntary offseason conditioning program, as his status remains unchanged, I’m told.”
Lee is represented by Todd France and Bryan Aryault.
Lee wasn’t there on April 23 and 24 for the two spring practices that were open to the media.
If you want to make a strong impression with Gregg Williams, who installing a new playbook, why wouldn’t you be there for these practices? All of the other team’s inside linebackers were there?
Rapoport said Lee is on the trade block, “Thanks to the big-money addition of C.J. Mosley.”
But why do you think Mosley was signed? Because Lee’s run defense was substandard, so they had to make a move. You need to be strong up the middle, and when you consistently allow big runs up the gut, it’s hard to have a top-shelf defense.
Lee struggles shedding blockers – we will give you two examples from the Jets’ loss to New England in Metlife Stadium last season:
Late in the third quarter, on a James White gain of 27 to the right side, Lee got taken out pulling guard Joe Thuney.
But it’s not just offensive linemen, but tight ends/fullbacks. Early in the fourth quarter of that same game, Lee was taken out by FB James Develin on a Sony Michel gain of 33.
Lee needs a change of scenery and needs to play in a 4-3 defense
It’s going to be hard to get anything in trade. Because the tape doesn’t lie, and what we saw in that New England game (and in other contests), officials from teams around the league saw the same thing.
May 6, 2019
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